Hartford Adventures & Artist talk at Hartford Art School

After the completion of my residency at Zea Mays I drove down to Hartford to visit my alma mater, Hartford Art School, where I was invited to do an artist talk and student critiques for a day. And of course I made various stops along the way.

My first stop was to visit my former art school colleague Julie Bergeron in her art making heaven at "Our Piece of the Pie"- OPP an organization that helps urban youth become economically independent adults. She does amazing work with her student/ the Junior Art Makers from mural painting to pottery to soap making, all of which they sell to raise money for the program as well as the students. It was such a pleasure to see Julie surrounded by her students in this amazing space. 

Next stop was Watermark Press, Martha Galuszka started her own little printshop with etching press and Vandercook in Hartford, CT (right next to Real Art Ways). It's a membership based studio where she also teaches workshops and works on her own projects. She has a nice set up in a beautiful space with huge windows. Of couse stopping at various printshops along the way was part of my research for when my husband and I open our own printshop in Dartmouth, NS in the near future. 

Storage at Watermark Press

This beautiful box contained Print3 the exchange portfolio of the Printmakers Network of Southern New England. Beautiful project! 

This is Martha at her etching press. 

The wonderful Jenni Freidman welcomed me into her beautiful home and I was ready for a day of fun at Hartford Art School. 

The new portion of the building on the right was just finished during my Senior year at Hartford Art School. It was such a strange feeling to walk the halls for the first time since graduation in 2007.

Came across some signage announcing my artist talk on November 24th. Too bad the photo came out blurry! 

This wall is mostly the same from when I was there, some additional posters. 

The view of the printshop has changed quite a bit. Where the students are seated over there used to be an office, they obviously knocked out the walls, and most of the letterpress and book arts stuff now has it's own room, which is where I did my little talk. 

I was thrilled that there were print students and freshman alike, as well as many faculty members. 

Thank you Jenni for snapping all these photos of the artist talk! 

Showing my newest prints and some of the linoblocks.

I think the artist talk at HAS was the best one I have had the opportunity to give, and I am not sure if it's because the faculty knew me and were interested or because the students where equally into it. Either way it was a wonderful experience! Thank you HAS for inviting me! 

Before I headed to Boston, Jenni showed me her beautiful backyard garden studio. 

How cute is this??

I love how Jenni's studio space breathes love, joy and so much of her personality! 

Jenni, showing off her sweet Vandercook letterpress. Gosh I got to get my hands on one of those!